This invention generally relates to machines that are used to suture, swage and package surgical needles. More specifically, the invention relates to procedures for operating those machines, or for controlling various operations on those machines.
Machines have recently been developed that automatically suture, swage and package surgical needles; and, for example, such machines are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,568,593, 5,495,420 and 5,487,212. Generally, in the operation of these machines, unsutured needles are fed to the machines, and indefinite lengths of suture, taken from spools or other suitable supplies, are inserted into recesses or openings in the needles. The needles are swaged in the areas of those recesses or openings to secure the connections between the sutures and the needles, the sutures are cut to preset lengths, and the needles are packaged.
These machines have proven to be highly valuable, and they effectively produce large numbers of excellent quality, packaged, sutured needles. Moreover, these needles are produced very economically on a large scale, high speed, mass production basis.
These machines are quite complex. Each machine has a multitude of work stations; and, in operation, the needles, or groups of needles, are moved through the work stations, one station at a time, and each work station is used to perform one or more specific tasks. Each work station may itself be a comparatively complex assembly, or group of assemblies, of moving parts.
In addition, it is important that the operations of the work stations be coordinated so that each station completes its assigned task or tasks before the work product is moved to the next work station. Achieving this needed coordination is complicated by several facts. First, the machines operate at high speeds; and, for example, each station may have less than one second to perform a series of tasks. Second, over time, the length of time that a particular work station needs to complete its particular task or tasks may change due to, for instance, normal wear of the machine parts at the work station.
An object of this invention is to improve machines for suturing and packaging needles.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a station check before indexing a rotary dial of a needle packaging machine.
A further object of this invention is to provide a check to be sure that various items on a needle packaging machine are in predetermined positions before moving the needle package on the machine.
Another object of this invention is to inspect a package of sutured needles for suture hanging outside the package.
Still another object of the present invention is to inspect a package of sutured needles for needles protruding from the package.
An object of the present invention is to monitor grippers used to pull test sutured needles to determine if they timely return to predetermined positions.
These and other objects are achieved with a machine for automatically threading, swaging and packaging surgical needles. Generally, in the operation of the machine, a first mechanism is used to sutures the needles and to pull test the needles to determine if certain maximum and minimum pull test requirements are met. The sutured needles are then transferred to packages on a second mechanism, and that mechanism indexes the packages through a series of stations to complete the packaging of the needles.
In accordance with a first aspect of the invention, various checks are made at the packaging mechanism before that mechanism is operated to index the needle packages. In accordance with a second aspect of the invention, different items at the station used to pull test the needles, are monitored to determine if they return timely to predetermined positions. Also, check are made at the station at which the needles are transferred to the packages, to be sure that those items are in preferred positions before the packages are moved. In addition, a detector unit and procedure are employed to inspect the packages for sutures hanging outside the packages, and another detector unit and procedure are provided to inspect the packages for needles protruding from the packages.
Further benefits and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description, given with reference to the accompanying drawings, which specify and show preferred embodiments of the invention.